Back door to Europe still ajar for Everton

There is a question out at the moment if this was the cause of Bobby’s poor season. No Europe and let’s see how he gets on.

You're in cloud cuckoo land if you seriously think we can mount a top 4 or 5 challenge. The team this season has shown its limitations and, with or without Europe, it won’t bring about a different approach from Martinez; it will still be the same football, the same mistakes being made, the same lack of fight in too many matches and soft lad Roberto going on about "thinking we only had to turn up".

The reason we finished 5th last season was one of various factors, Moyes's fitness regime was still in place, the players' performances were to impress the new management at the time. Now, they know they are safe, but don’t really buy into the philosophy of Martinez. Also the other big factor: age has caught up with too many and next year they will be even older again and slower.

The best we can hope for next season is a run in the Cups and a top-half finish, probably about 8th or 9th. This manager doesn’t have the tactical nous or flexibility to consistently get the team up there and the inability to motivate them is a key factor.

Incidentally, what difference really is playing Thursday and Sunday from the Wednesday to Saturday schedule in the Champions League!!?

We’re not going to win anything or get CL, so I’ll take a few beers, a few laughs and a sing-song in a nice continental bar.

Play the Under-18s if they want.

We were totally ill-prepared for this season and, before the Europa League had even started in late September, we had already suffered a string of abysmal results such as the Chelsea and Palace home defeats.

It's naïve to give Martinez and the players a foundation to lay excuses on; they all need to share the blame for underperforming this season and no excuse will cut any ice with the fans. Martinez has made too many mistakes this season and failed to motivate his players – that’s not Europe, it’s bad management.

I’d love to be proved wrong next season but I can see by the middle to end of September we will all be having the same raging debates as we have this season: more questions than answers again and more baffling team selections.

European football, new signings, new tactics... I can’t get excited about anything... I just don’t think Martinez is capable and seeing him out the door should still be every Evertonian’s priority.

On one hand, I greatly enjoyed Europe this season and it's where we should be if we are looking to push forward. On the other hand, we obviously suffered domestically this season and I'm not sure I could handle a repeat next year.

Overall, if we were to get the place, I’d probably say "Go for it." Better to do so and regret than not to do at all... right? But let’s genuinely bolster the squad if so!

The thought of us getting back into that shite competition is too horrendous to even think about.

West Ham could well have been very clever in their run of matches since their exit from the FA Cup by not being as competitive as they usually are in order to achieve Europe by the back-door. If we are in with a chance in the last game at West Ham, what are the odds that one or two of our players are dismissed for looking at the officials the wrong way?

It would be good for the club to have another season in the Europa League, but entry via this particular route is hardly the best way to achieve it. I also notice that our neighbours always seem to be top or near the top of this league in most seasons, no bias or the FA looking after it’s ’branded’ clubs I don’t suppose.

’Too many matches’ is only used as an excuse when you are playing like shite; if you’re winning or on unbeaten runs it’s all this "Oh, I want to play again tomorrow, we don’t want a break."

My advice to the manager, players and even fans alike is whatever competition your team’s are in, enjoy it, stop moaning. Cups and tournaments are part of football... Put simply, if you’re only playing for the league but know you have no chance of ever winning it, that’s when the fun goes out of the game for me.

Win a cup or finish top 6 then great. This way, not really.

We want to be in Europe every year.

However, it may be better for the lads to have a good rest to recharge their batteries and get a good pre-season programme worked out and start afresh.

I can’t believe the amount of negativity being shown with regard to next season. I myself have my doubts regarding Roberto but he’s obviously going to be in charge next season so let's be positive and get behind him and the lads next season and give them a chance to make amends for this sorry excuse of a season.

If English teams outperform Italian teams in the next couple of seasons, then England will keep the 4th place.

I believe if you play CL on a Tuesday you play on Saturday and if it’s a Wednesday game you play on a Sunday so you do, in fact, get an extra day off. I might be wrong but I think this is how it works.

Distin, Alcaraz and Garbutt leaving and only a potential three signings being mooted by the manager would leave us desperately short, especially when you add the four bona fide sick-notes we currently have in Oviedo, Pienaar, Hibbert and Gibson.

Europe was a convenient excuse this season; next season, I want no repeat and no excuses.

It’s a matter of English clubs out-performing Italy in Europe in the coming season in order for the PL to retain four places in the CL.

It’s the small ’nicey-nicey’ club award for those who weren’t quite good enough but were ... nice enough. It’s less Floyd Mayweather and more the Audley Harrison award for turning up.

I hope Besic and Barry play in every game left this season now. And I hope Naismith watches Braveheart on a loop all Friday night while downing a few cans of Special Brew on the back of the SNP election results.

I also fear entering EL is another ready-made excuse for another season like this one.

I would prefer a higher league finish and a good cup run, given the choice.

A good cup run and a higher league placing?? We had that on more than one occasion under Moyes and it left us wanting more. It's no use finishing 7th or 8th and getting to a semi-final and losing it; we did that exact feat in 2012 but nobody remembers it fondly, do they?

I’d rather finish 10th or 11th or even 12th but actually WIN a bloody trophy for a change.

Sick of these so-called "good cup runs"... what’s good about losing a semi or getting annihilated in a quarter-final??

If we want to win trophies, we can’t just wait for our once every 25 years glory run where we beat all the top 4 on the way to the final. We need to play the odds and wait for that year it all falls into place or you get a clear path. Currently though we just throw away the League Cup every season and if we’re drawn away in the FA Cup we throw that too.

No reason (apart from unlucky draws) why a side who are (were) regular finishers in the top 6 shouldn’t be pushing the quarters every season in both. You only have to look at Liverpool this season: they didn’t play anyone of note but got to two semi-finals. Yeah they messed it up but another season they spawn past Chelsea and its Sheffield United in the final and, lo and behold, another trophy win. We don’t even put ourselves in the frame to win it.

It’s what makes Mourinho a special manager: he hates to lose but he loves to win and he doesn’t really care about how it’s achieved. Not for football purists, I’ll admit, but a dose of something similar at Goodison would do us a great deal of good.

I take some solace in the fact that the missus doesn't mind me heading off for a European match.

We are no Champions League contenders and it is a name on the telly situation, regular European football may attract a new regime and maybe cash. I know it’s optimistic but, hey, half-full... right?

Minik, just one thing before you get excited mate. We would have to enter at the 1st qualifying round, which starts on July 2nd. The season finishes on 24th May, leaving only a month for pre-season and any signings to be made.

We would have to play 8 games just to get to the group phase. EIGHT... six of them even before the new Premier League season starts. It would be an even bigger fixture backlog than we’ve had this season.

Obviously I’d accept it. It’s European football at the end of the day, but it would carry a hollow feeling of "We don’t deserve this, we’re only in it because of less red cards than anyone else" rather than the positive feeling we had last season when we fully deserved our place.

It’s another competition and whilst the likelihood of ever challenging for the PL again grows smaller each year; we need to be in these competitions. If nothing else, it increases the club's coefficient in Europe and does attract and retain good footballers.

Don’t take my playing hookey away!! Play the rezzies! Just get me out of work!!

Deserve?

Pffft!!

We don’t deserve Luvvie Fat-head or our hopeless two-bob board.

We didn’t deserve Collina or Heysel or Clattenfuckinburg or Clive twatting Thomas

There’s ALL kinds of shite Everton didn’t deserve over the years, that we got right between the eyes.

I don’t think we’ll get this, but if we do, the last thing I’ll worry about is ’we don’t deserve it.’

I’m surprised that UEFA haven’t removed this particular avenue seeing as they have removed the Cup Final runners up from potentially going through.

What’s good about a good cup run is the exciting parts of last 16/8/4/2 games, that can’t be predicted, but can be won on the very pitch on the day. I very much welcome good cup runs – rather that than early exits. Good cup runs let players like Garbutt & Browning play at some point, and if you include EL, then more minutes to the players on the bench.

It’s gonna be a lot different next season, with replacing and able to spend money, that’s why Mirallas has expressed that he wants to stay, not just a great club, but ambitious as ever, ’cause this season won’t be repeated again like that, that leads to getting more players in if EL comes knocking on our door.

Also, last 16 in a competition of this nature is not a good cup run.

Qualifying for the Champions League guarantees you a basic revenue stream which allows you to strengthen and enlarge the squad – ie, it allows investment to cope with the extra demands, whereas the Europa League demands the same (if not more) playing time without the opportunity to add quality and numbers to the squad - which, in our case, is already stretched.

I think the previous time that we reached the last 16, we made a net profit of £400,000 – just enough to pay Rooney’s wages for two weeks.

In no particular order:-

a) A pre-season that lacked intensity;
b) Square pegs and round holes team selection;
c) Playing of favourites;
d) Picking players regardless of form;
e) Therefore leading to a lack of competition for places and a demotivating effect on fringe players; which leads to the next point:
f) Robles/Howard – no matter how you play, Joel, you’re out and he’s in, no matter how he plays;
g) Lack of faith/trust/confidence in youth;
h) No Plan B, C, or D;
i) Late substitutions that give no real chance for the outcome to be affected;
j) No substitutions!
k) Europe?

I was a big Martinez fan when he came, as I’ve stated on numerous threads. But the facts laid bare this season makes Phil Wailing (the Wigan hater) the Nostradamus of football.

You all watch this space, because Phil Nostradamus will be proved right.

It buggered up the season for seven months and we still only reached the last 16.

Ross #56, if that’s the level of opposition we should breeze through it.

Simple but as many point out Everton are not very commercial.

Wolfsburg away – absolutely brilliant time again.

Kiev away – Shite result but an absolute brilliant time in Kiev...

What’s not to like??

It would seem that European games would help increase the size of Everton’s international footprint and help out the commercial side perhaps. Maybe it helps build the club’s image and drives up sponsor deal prices, etc. as well as fan development.

Still better to advertise about watching Everton playing FC Twente, Napoli, etc than Everton playing a League One or Two opponent.

As for the comments about not wanting it to distract the manager or him not being up for it, I offer only this: If he isn’t up to the task, then replace him with someone who is.

Better to avoid it altogether and focus on getting everybody properly fit for the second weekend of August when the Premier League season begins.

Ask the 8,000 fans at Lille, the 5,000 fans at Wolfsberg, the 4,500 in Berne. Nights like those are much better than sodding Stoke away in the League Cup on a wet Wednesday night.

In the state were in, beggars can’t be choosers and were a million miles from champions league football. I’d love another crack at the Europa league. Preferably without Martinez!!

Rafa had his big red blushing ’it’s not fair’ kipper on, coz the opposition keeper had a blinder.

(Have Napoli got the shittest badge ever?)

Apparently it ends then so Clubs can get all their plans in place with only 8 weeks to go till the competition kicks off on July 2. They can’t wait till every European league has finished or there would be almost no time left at all.

I believe they will be announcing the Top 3 leagues and therefore the qualifiers tomorrow (Friday May 8). So it appears Lyndon may have sparked a pointless debate .....

Had we not thrown it away in Kiev, we’d be enjoying a tilt at a thrilling end of the year and some potential silverware. Instead it’s trying to hit 9th rather than 11th.

Why so? the clubs would have priority over international matches if it is in a UEFA competition.

Our European run last season garnered more UEFA coefficient points than our neighbours even though they had a 4 point head start on us. So we need every season in Europe we can get to keep our coefficient healthy.

If it’s any consolation their fans were none too keen either. Other than an emotional ’final European night at the Boleyn’ (quite funny really as they have hardly played in Europe in the last 40 years, even less than us) their fans were adamant their squad was too small and didn’t like the Thursday / Sunday routine either. Sound familiar?!

It’s also incredible how little regard they have for Allardyce, a man who might be about to bring about their highest League finish in 10 years. Mind you their opinions of Glenn Roeder (7th) and Harry Redknapp (5th) were even worse. They call Spurs the Deludeds, a bit like we refer to LFC, but this move to the Olympic Stadium has many of them deluding themselves they will be in the CL very soon......a new stadium solving all your problems? That sounds familiar too! Will be interesting to see how it pans out for them in their Round stadium. (Has anybody else wondered how the views from the side of the pitch will be? Binoculars may be required...)

Extra Place For England

It seemed so unfair, oh cuz Clint Dempsey, Damian Duff and Brede Hangelengalanda are all cub scouts on the pitch they get Euro and we don’t, even though we have 15 more points than them!?!?

I also didn’t understand what the fuck this Fair Play was all about. I’m American, all’s fair is.......everything, pretty much!

As for getting in this way this year.......fuck yeah, let’s do it!

A great pity Ferguson is not registered as a player as between the 3 of them we are bound to get enough bookings/sendings off to ensure we have no chance of getting into that shite competition.

I mean have a look at Fifa. After checking that out, have a look at the draw for the FA Cup Semi-Finals.: Arsenal v Reading, then Liverpool v Aston Villa and the media predicts.... It went wrong for the media, just like it did in 1995!!

But hey, at least the media will, or may have Boring (sorry Barca) v Real in the final. Some will call it "the dream ticket" but others, like me will call it the disgusting, depraved money orientated corporated shite we have now.

We have radio stations that give you football 24 hours a day. But what is it you hear on these stations?

You hear the top four and the RS talked and chatted about over and over and over again,

It’s about brainwashing, it’s all as Patrick says the "branded few".

Sorry to have ranted and bored everyone but I don't watch or listen to football anymore. It’s like watching a film for the 50th time and listening to people like Sam Splatterface on TalkSport losing his voice for the dramatic effect. The funny thing is, he must have been told that us out here all fall for that pseudo-Hollywood dung.

By the way, TalkSport, do you think we were all born under a rock and elevate in life to drive a white van?

Sorry guys, i’m just so upset since 1992-93.

BUT I STILL LOVE EVERTON XX.

Roberto, NO!